ALSAR Assessment of Living Skills and Resources

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Assessment of Living Skills and Resources (ALSAR) Developers: J. Williams, T. Drinka, J. Greenberg, J. Farrell-Holtan, R. Euhardy & P. Schram. William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, USA. Access: Advised by T. Drinka (email correspondence dated 8.2.06), that the ALSAR and instructions may be copied from: Drinka, T.J.K., Williams, J., Schram, M., Farrell-Holtan, J. & Euhardy, M. (2000). Assessment of Living Skills and Resources (ALSAR©), an instrumental activities of daily living assessment instrument (pp. 726-729). In D. Osterweil, K., Brummel-Smith & J Beck (Eds.). Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cost: The ALSAR Training Manual costs AUD$15, and is available from the School of Occupational Therapy, La Trobe University, Health Sciences Building 3, Plenty Road, Bundoora, VIC, 3086. Tel: 03 9479 5732, Fax (03) 9479 5737. Email: [email protected]. Copyright: One of the authors (T. Drinka) advised that the ALSAR is public property, and maybe copied and used without restriction. The ALSAR Training Manual may not be copied. Description: The ALSAR is an 11-item interview tool that measures instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). The ALSAR separately rates client skill and available resources for each IADL task. The 11 specific tasks include: telephoning, reading, leisure, medication management, money management, transportation, shopping, meal preparation, laundering, housekeeping and home maintenance. The three aims of the ALSAR are to: 1. Quantify the likelihood that a client will be unable to accomplish each task given their level of skill and resources available; 2. Predict an overall risk for the client of negative health outcomes (eg death, nursing home placement etc) 3. Assist in intervention planning. Administration: Completed by a therapist in consultation with the client in a clinical or home setting. Administration Time: Approximately 30 minutes to complete. Scoring and Interpretation: Full scoring details are available in the ALSAR Training Manual. For each task, the client is rated as ‘independent’ (score of 0), ‘partially dependent’ (score of 1), or ‘dependent’ (score of 2). Resources available to assist the client are rated as ‘consistently available’ (score of 0), ‘inconsistently available’ (score of 1) or ‘not available or in use’ (score of 2). The skill and resource scores are combined to obtain a risk score for each of the 11 IADL tasks. Risk for each IADL

ALSAR summary prepared by the Occupational Therapy Program, University of Western Sydney Funded by the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW, May 2006

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task is defined as ‘low’ (combined score of 0 or 1), ‘moderate’ (combined score of 3) or ‘high’ (combined score of 4). The 11 risk scores are summed to provide an “R” or Total Risk Score, indicating the risk of overall negative outcomes for the client. An “R” score over 20 indicates a moderate risk, over 30, a high risk. Scoring Time: Approximately 30 minutes. Population Groups: People over 60 years of age. Languages: The ALSAR is available in English only. References: Connor-Spady, B., Slaughter, S., & MacLean, S. (1999). Assessing the usefulness of the Assessment of Living Skills and Resources (ALSAR) in a geriatric day hospital. Canadian Journal of Rehabilitation, 12(4), 265 – 272. Drinka, T.J.K., Williams, J., Schram, M., Farrell-Holtan, J., & Euhardy, M. (2000). Assessment of Living Skills and Resources (ALSAR©), an instrumental activities of daily living assessment instrument (pp. 726-9). In D. Osterweil, K. BrummelSmith & J Beck (Eds.). Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. New York: McGraw-Hill. Fricke, J. (1997). Training Manual for ALSAR, Assessment of Living Skills and Resources. Melbourne: La Trobe University. Neistadt, M.E. (2000). Occupational therapy evaluation for adults. Baltimore, Maryland: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Williams, J., Drinka, T., Greenberg, J. Farrell-Holtan, J., Euhardy, R., & Schram, P. (1991). Development and testing of the Assessment of Living Skills and Resources (ALSAR) in elderly community-dwelling veterans. The Gerontologist, 31(1), 84-91.

ALSAR summary prepared by the Occupational Therapy Program, University of Western Sydney Funded by the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW, May 2006

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ICF Levels: Level Addressed by Measure

Yes

No √

Body Function/ Structure Activity

√

Participation

√

Psychometric Properties: Published Data Available for the Measure

Yes

No

Validity Face Content1, 2 Criterion1, 2 Construct1

√ √ √

√

Reliability Test – retest Intra – rater Inter – rater1, 2 Other information available Responsiveness to change 3 Standardised4 Clinically important change Clinical utility3

1. 2. 3. 4.

√ √ √

√ √

√

√

Williams et al (1991) Data summarised in Neistadt (2000) Connor-Spady et al (1999) Fricke (1997)

ALSAR summary prepared by the Occupational Therapy Program, University of Western Sydney Funded by the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW, May 2006

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